MGG Pillai Commentary View

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The rulers and the ruled go further apart by the day

APEC LEADERS MEETING IN Busan, South Korea, discussed, among other subjects, bird flu. Less people die a year of bird flu than a day in the United States of car accident deaths. Indeed, more people die of car accidents around the world, even in APEC, in a day than bird flu in a year; police and military brutality around the world is much serious and prevalent than bird flu, but we do not see APEC, or any regional or international body, discussing it. The world spins on corruption, and it affects us all; yet the matter is not discussed seriously in any international forum. To ensure that corruption will not be brought to court, laws are passed, in every country, to make that more difficult. Bird flu is a laboratory disease that has escaped the coop. As Aids was. The AIDS campaign is over. But how many people have died of AIDS throughout the world in the years we have been warned against it. APEC essentially is a regional body in which the United States, China and Russia is in the same forum. It is their agenda that the rest of APEC accepts. It gives officials a chance to spend public money living it up in foreign countries, even if it was not plain sailing in Busan. Riots and public protests made it inconvenient there, but they were coccooned half-a-mile away in their fortress-like hotels. I have attended many such meetings, and not only APEC, and in countries around the region. But all these international meetings ensure that the divide between the rulers and the ruled at home are wide apart. In a few countries, this is noticed, and the people retaliate.

The host government dedicate more security than it can afford to these meetings, which include a gathering of Caucasiuan academics which can last up a week. The academics have taken over, and the meetings are seen as occasions for coverage of national leaders. The format of these meetings are built for their convenience. What was discussed at these meetings? We do not know, but we know what our leaders said, for that is all over the papers here. These meetings seem to strengthen the leaders of countries. Before the APEC meeting, Malaysia's Pak Lah visited Bush a few days before APEC. We do not hear of our leaders calling on other leaders in APEC besides the United States and other Western powers. That Pak Lah visited Washington in secret, and his visit sprung on Malaysians after he landed there, gives him an importance he does not have in the world scheme of things. The only things these meetings show up is the intense nationalism, or the lack of it. President Roh of South Korea spoke in Korean in public; in Malaysia, our leaders would have talked in English. Our leaders speak in English so that they would get coverage overseas. Foreign correspondents in South Korea or Thailand have leaders who speak in public in their national language. The US Embassy in Thailand and other countries engage native people to translate what the government leaders tell the people. In Bangkok, the translation of Thai ministerial statements and press conferences is given to correspondents who do not speak Thai and visiting reporters. I used to get translated texts of press conferences by post. But there is no such worry in Malaysia. The vernacular press is ignored. With the result, we at least know what is happening in this country by reading the vernacular press.

Press conferences by the prime minister and others are in English when it matters overseas. They also address foreign and local conferences in English. Why can't they speak in Malay? Malaysian officals are more concerned that the English newspapers and media are censored, while the Malay, Chinese and Tamil papers are not. In Thailand, it is the other way around. The English papers are allowed to report as its likes, so the reporters fill in the requirements of a theoretical free press. But the Thai papers are not. Today, the government of Mr Thaksin Shinawatre has problems with the press, because the Thai newspapers object to being under a tight leash. In Thailand, the government knows which language press it must control. It is so in many countries. But not in Malaysia. It is the other way around. Civil servants readly the English papers, and they wait for summaries of the language press sent hours or even a day late. The English media knows which side their bread is buttered, and smartly follow what is expected of them. An ambassador from a Central Asian state spoke only French; he was laughed at by Malaysian officials. But he is a high official in his country today. Those who studied in this country since the May 13 racial riot studied in Malay. The universities from about 1982 were in Malay, but it is the English- educated who gets the preference in all facets of Malaysian life. So the well heeled, and the politicians sent their children to English schools and universities. Even Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, a former minister of education but now expelled from UMNO, has sent his children to schools in the United States. But he is not the only minister of education to send his children overseas. We even have Oxbridge graduates who think they know the Malay-speaking rural folk,

Education is one way of keeping the rulers separate from the ruled. Conferences like APEC is another. I have a theory that officials go for meetings by whatever name in exotic locations around the world for two or three days so that they can have a holiday at public expense. In Malaysia, civil servants from Johore Bahru fly to Pulau Langkawi to discuss traffic along Sungei Johore, or some such. The hotels get filled, the country or area gets the public approval, some get their bank balances raised. But the result is a holiday, whatever the reason for being in the exotic locale. But as the rulers act, the ruled retaliate. So, as the years go by, the governments in power pass laws to keep the ruled in check. But those who demonstrated in favour of Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Dataran Merdeka, facing the Selangor Court, got cold feet when the police retaliated in force. If they had held their ground, and stayed put, the government could have done nothing. But the demonstration broke up. Now the ordinary man will not take part in any demonstration against the government, which reacts with violent force at any such move. But the spark has been lit. It may be years before it is lit again. But the question is when, not if. There is no major dissidence for such a crowd to gather. The government is fearful of that happening, and so arms itself with powers to stop that. But with each policy against the people, they organise themselves. The National Front is supposed to get the races together, but its raison d'etre is to separate them. Divide and rule is their practice, though unity in strength is the motto. But the youngsters, from all races, cannot see the relevance of the National Front, and unite, often in unemployment. More than 60,000 graduates from local universities cannot get jobs. That is a grave danger for the National Front. Just 2,000 unemployed graduates in Trengganu in 1990 helped PAS win the state. They have lost the state since. But more than 2,000 unemployed graduated are with PAS in the state. The National Front is formulating its policies so that the opposition will benefit in the years ahead.

Meetings like APEC and within the countries are to emphasise the divide between the rulers and the ruled, and benefits the rulers. But it benefits the rulers in some countries in tragedy. The Tsunami affected fishermen and others living on the cost in Langkawi. But the money collected was not distribed to them because the government insisted that the tsunami did not hit Malaysia. The money that went into the fund was used to help other countries. I collected items for the victims of the Maharashtra earthquake in the nineties. But I saw some of the items is civil servants' houses about a year later. The victims of that earthquate are still living in make shit tents, and many got no help. In the South Asian earthquake this year, the most affected were those whom the government is trying to woo. But with foreign help, the Pakistani government has all but ignored them. The Pakistan Government cannot give them aid now. An international aid consortium meets in Geneva meets to get more aid. But aid fatigue is in the air, and support is not forthcoming from overseas. But look at South Korea. They ordered the NGOs out when the United States refused to build a nuclear plant for it for which Pyongyang was prepared to pay. It saw the connection between the NGOs and the United States. One was ordered out when the other refused. Today, there is no talk of starving children in North Korea, which is left to develop its country as it pleases. So it is said of Cuba. But Cuba, which still facing serious shortcomings, is better than the United States in areas like health.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com